


The Neverending Nightmare

by whollohw



Category: Chase Me - Dreamcatcher (Music Video), Dreamcatcher (Korea Band)
Genre: F/F, Future relationships to be added - Freeform, Horror AU, Maybe - Freeform, Nightmare, Nightmare concept
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-26
Updated: 2019-03-31
Packaged: 2019-11-06 00:58:01
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 9,102
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17929742
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whollohw/pseuds/whollohw
Summary: 7 girls who experience the same nightmares, come together to find the reason behind their dreams. Blindly trusting strangers to escape the horros in their minds, seems like the only solution they have.At least everything is just in their heads, right?





	1. Welcome to Dream

**Author's Note:**

> Hello, this is my first fanfiction ever. I was obviously inspired by DC's MVs and concepts but this is not meant to be a theory or anything. Also it doesn't explain the story in the MVs. This is just an AU I thought about. I will try to upload regularly. But I'm usually busy 24/7 so let's see about that. Please leave comments what you think about the 1st chapter and if you want to have ships included in this story (and which ones). Thank you!!

Minji watched the dust dancing in the sun. Today was a rather warm day, considering that it was only May. But she was stuck in the library trying to focus on an essay she had to turn in next week. Trying and failing to be honest. The semester only started last month but she was already loaded with work again. Despite everything though, Minji just kept staring at nothing. Her mind was too busy to focus on anything related to: “Social Policies Concerned with Social Services and Welfare State and Methods of Influence“. 

She felt her eyes falling shut slowly, but ripped herself out of the comforting promise that sleep was offering her. Because Minji knew very well that falling asleep would not help her at all. Every morning she would wake up just as tired as she fell asleep. It hasn’t always been like that of course. Up until a few months ago she always had a great rest at night. But ever since the nightmares started sleep has become a challenge to her. She had those horrible dreams every night now and definitely didn’t want to risk waking up covered in cold sweat with tears in her eyes at the goddamn library. Even though she would rather forget everything that happens in those dreams, the images and even the sounds are imprinted in her mind. The dreams slightly differ from night to night. Minji’s jaw clenched as she thought of last night again. She saw her childhood friend Yoohyeon... again. Fear had been written all over her face while she was screaming. And then Minji and she had to run away from that thing again. While they were in that house...again. Minji never clearly saw what exactly they were running away or hiding from. It seemed to be a dark shadow and even though she wasn’t afraid of Darkness, she knew that they could never let that thing catch them or something even more horrifying would happen. The dreams didn’t always happen with Yoohyeon. Sometimes Minji was alone in that house or with other girls that she didn’t know. But whenever Yoohyeon appeared, she was particularly hurt after waking up. She was her childhood friend but now they haven’t talked in years. They went to the same grade school but got separated in middle school. They still had contact for a few years after that but at some point the contanct just broke and they grew apart.

It’s funny how it seems like you’re inseparable one day and then not talk anymore for years. Minji didn’t even know her current phone number. When those dreams started Minji thought that she simply missed being that close to someone. Or simply missed Yoohyeon. And then suddenly she saw her again. On campus. All grown up and pretty like she remembered. Like she appeared in her dreams. Did Minji have the guts to talk to her though? Well of course not. As soon as she saw her being surrounded by her friends, laughing with them and being loud as she always had been, Minji ducked away and tried to escape a possible confrontation about how she never tried to contact Yoohyeon again. Even though it wasn’t Minji’s fault alone that they grew apart, she still blames herself a lot. Maybe Yoohyeon would blame her too? And the dreams didn’t help to make her more at ease with talking to Yoohyeon again. Seeing her being scared and vulnerable about every second night made her want to protect her childhood friend again. But she knew that the future CEO of one of the most influential fashion magazines probably doesn’t need anything from her. Yoohyeon has always been nice and welcoming to her, when they were still children. But people change with time and Minji was scared of being rejected. So she behaved like a true adult and moved around campus like a ninja to avoid being seen by Yoohyeon. Even now she looked for the most hidden corner of the library and paid attention to everyone passing her, ready to flee the scene as soon as she would see silky hair with a brown to pink ombré.

Not that Minji was only scared, she was also embarrassed. Yoohyeon had a rich family and was way more beautiful that all of the models who featured in their magazine. All that Minji had were her average good grades and a dusty little apartment. Their worlds never belonged together anyways. So things were good, as they were now, Minji thought. After a few more minutes, she pulled herself together and began her research for the essay to get at least something done today. Before night will inevitably come again...

 

Yoohyeon had been extremely excited about entering college. She wasn’t too fond of studying business administration but her mom told her, that the knowledge would be very important if she wanted to take over the family business. And she wanted nothing more than that. Since she was a child she saw the glamorous models with their amazing outfits and even though she didn’t like every single outfit she was impressed at how the pictures turned out and showed the clothes in perfect light and atmosphere. She wasn’t that good at designing herself. But leading the production of the magazine and deciding on what pictures make it, seemed like a good way for her to keep doing what interested her. But for that she needs to know how to run a business, so that’s how she ended up on the local college. With her parent’s money and influence she could have gotten into the best universities of the country or maybe even study overseas, but she will also do some work at their company while studying to get practical experience, that’s why she choose a college close to her home. It wasn’t that important to her which university she went on anyways, since she would obviously riding on her parent’s coattails to get to her job. She was fully aware that people might look down on her for that, but that won’t stop her from achieving her dream. And it’s not like her parents would go easy on her. She still has to work hard like everyone else who got into the company. Maybe even harder since her parents are extreme perfectionists and would only allow her to take over, if they truly think that she was cut out for it. The press won’t see that though and she’s already prepared for the shit they would give her in the first years. But that just means that she has to prove her skills until they shut up. Studying went well with her so far. She met a lot of new people already who are nice to her. Not everyone of them knows who she actually is and Yoohyeon barely mentions her family while talking to them. She doesn’t want to let her new friends too close, afraid that they might get involved with the mess that is called the media. Journalists are just waiting for her to make a simple mistake, so that they can drag her family down with her. That’s why she is very cautious an refuses to go to dirty nightclubs or anything like that. She had been to a few parties where she could dance and let loose for a bit, but it was never something big or scandalous. Yoohyeon also didn’t really think of dating right now. It would probably be somehow turned into a scandal by the press and she didn’t want anyone to have to go through that.

She often missed the past, when she wasn’t observed and judged yet. What or more like who she misses most from those days was her best friend Minji. Yes, they haven’t even seen each other the past years, but Yoohyeon still thought of her as her best friend. She was the person who understood her the most and if they meet now, Yoohyeon was sure that it would be like old times again. But then again, she didn’t want to get people in trouble with her exposure to the public. She heard that Minji would be on the same college as her, but hasn’t searched for her yet, afraid of not being able to let go. This type of self-discipline was hard on her, of course. Never being able to let yourself open up to people even though that is what you need the most right now, has taken its toll on her. So much that she can’t even sleep at peace now. Nightmares torturing her every night and even Minji appears in them. In those dreams Minji tries to protect her from some kind of monster. Her brain probably just made these nightmares up, because of her craving to get her best friend back and avoid the paparazzi. Other girls appeared in those dreams too, but Yoohyeon couldn’t really remember where she’s seen them before. But they’re always in the same scenario. Locked inside an old big house, maybe a villa, together with an evil... something. Yoohyeon called it the shadow monster. A big  creature made of black smoke, it seemed.

During the day she tried to push away the memories of the nightmares, knowing that it’s stupid of her to be afraid of them. They’re only dreams, right? But she’s still uneasy. If she only had someone to tell them about her worries...

 

It was a quiet day at the “Best of our knowledge (B.O.O.K.)” book store. Handong had been working here for almost a year now after moving out from her parent’s place to make a living of her own. Despite the name, she really liked the bookstore and felt comfortable with her co-workers and almost every customer. She got to enjoy some quiet times since the bookstore wasn’t well known and not that many people visited it. But today was especially quiet. In this wonderful weather people probably didn’t want to spend their time in this small space. So Handong could use the time to review her notes, she took last night. Thanks to this job she can afford taking English classes in her evenings and she was working hard to manage her work and studying at the same time. So that one day she can hopefully become a flight attendant like she dreamed to be since she was little. Handong was shy yes, but she wanted to see the world and experience different cultures, while she could help people and make them have a comfortable travel. She still had a long way to go until then, but she was thick-headed and so she wouldn’t give up easily. Her parents supported her best they can, but their resources were very limited and they still needed to take care of her younger siblings. That’s why she learned to stand on her own feet very quickly and is determined to make them proud and support them when she finally has a better income. Some people don’t want to become flight attendants because that meant leaving everyone behind. Handong didn’t think of it like that. She would still see her family when she is on vacation and it’s not really like she had friends anyways. Handong was too shy to approach people herself and found it hard to open up to strangers. She often blamed herself for that, thinking she might have ruined someone’s day by saying something wrong or not seeming interested enough. Lately she is particularly hard on herself, because she always zones out and makes mistakes that way. She didn’t have a good night’s rest in months, since she is haunted by nightmares. She usually likes to read thriller and horror stories. It’s one of her guilty pleasures that people, who look at her, wouldn’t have expected at all. But ever since the nightmares stared she stopped reading them, thinking they were the cause of this. When they continued she realized they must have another reason. In these nightmares Handong was mostly surrounded by other girls and as a group they took care of each other. She even remembered that they sometimes made a few jokes in her dreams despite the horrible situation. With them Handong felt more safe than when she was alone in a nightmare. And even though they’re just made up by her mind, she does feel some kind of attachment to them. She hopes that at some point in her life she might find a friendship that is strong during hard times and that can face any type of difficulty together. Until then she should improve herself more though, so that people would actually find her interesting and easy to talk to. She shouldn’t just sit around and hope that a miracle happens. Working at the bookstore helped her talking to strangers a bit more and she’s not as bad as she was back in high school, where she wouldn’t even answer the teacher. She behaved like a mute, but thankfully didn’t get teased or bullied for it. Her classmates accepted her the way she was, yet she still found it very hard to find the courage to talk to them. If any of them saw her now, they would be surprised to hear her voice, probably. Handong was a bit proud of herself to have overcome that, but she was far from being satisfied with herself yet. But she was had always been hard working and tries to improve day by day. So that one day she can feel comfortable with herself and the people around her and doesn’t have to worry about what she’s saying. Before that happens she has to face her nightmares alone for now. Crying through the nights alone and scared, not being able to turn the lights off. It was hard on her but one day the bad dreams will stop. She is sure about that. The only problem is herself after all....

 

Siyeon didn’t realize that she got black lipstick all over the pen she was chewing on. The producer hadn’t been satisfied with her new costume designs for his new interpretation of “The Merry Wives of Windsor” a Shakespeare opera. This very producer was certainly hard to work with. Everyone at the theatre including her got to experience that. He corrected her first designs for the costumes pointing out things he would like her to change and that is absolutely valid. After she changed everything to his wishes though, he seemed to not like them anymore and made her redo everything. A friend of hers who did the stage design has had a similar problem with him and so did the singers and mutes. She was used to things not going to plan, she was working at a theatre after all, but his attitude was getting on her nerves. He didn’t see his own mistakes and was blaming everyone else for falling behind schedule. She just wished that the performances would start sooner so that he was forced to stick with one of the many decisions he made. So that was how she ended up there in the mess that was the theatre wardrobe trying to recycle old costumes because the theatre couldn’t afford new ones. She ran around with a pen in her mouth most of the time, in case she got an idea and would need to scribble it down before she forgot. Or that’s what she told herself, because she didn’t want to admit that it was only a bad habit that she developed in school. Being a costume designer was great. She always had a unique sense of fashion and theatres were mostly well... unique. She could try different styles all the time trying to fit it to the mood of the play. It was exciting and she loved her work. Yet she dreamed to be on stage herself one day. She loved singing even more than designing and with the income she got from the theatre she was saving up to get vocal lessons one day and start her career as a singer. Maybe classical singing or maybe even an idol she wasn’t sure yet. But she knew that she wanted people to hear her voice. She wanted to make everyone cry while listening to her. She wanted to create emotions and heal people with her voice. Because music did that to her too.  During her teenage years she struggled a lot to find herself. It took a long time for her to be happy and accept herself as she was. Music made her confident and made her feel like she wasn’t alone with that struggle. So she wanted to help others too. Until then she had to make these costumes for the opera work somehow. She chewed even harder on the pen in her mouth while flipping through some fancy dresses which could be used for the main cast. She was yawing too often to be able to fully concentrate on the clothes. Those damn nightmares. She loved horror. Halloween was her favourite day of the year and making creepy costumes was her passion. She used to watch at least one horror movie a day. Most of them were disappointing but whenever she had felt Goosebumps or a shiver, she felt alive. Those dreams though... They seem to be completely different than a horror movie. It felt all too real and it stressed her out more than a simple movie would. She’s seen scenes like these way too often in films, but somehow the fear in her nightmares is too overwhelming to brush off. She wasn’t only scared for herself. No, there were other people with her in the dream. Other girls. All of them extremely pretty. They could be actresses or idols, if they wanted. Siyeon was very scared for the girls. Even more than for herself. Horrible things kept happening to them and every time she startled out of a dream and into reality she remembered that sharp feeling of guilt. Not being able to protect everyone. Not being able to save them. Siyeon was very outgoing and weird at times, but if she was attached to someone, she would literally fight to death for them. The girls in her dreams seemed to be very important to her and Siyeon just couldn’t stand seeing their horrified faces. She’d been wondering why she had the same version of one dream every night, but after a few weeks, she gave up. Something was going on, that was for sure. But she wouldn’t know why until it happened. And when the time has come she would know. She would know why these nightmares haunted her and why she felt attached to people she had never seen before. She would just pay more attention to the different elements of her dream for now...

 

Panting and with sweat literally dripping down her face, Bora stopped moving for a second. The speaker still blasted out the hip-hop song with edm elements that she was making a choreography for right now and wouldn’t stop for another two minutes. She was well aware of being behind schedule. She should have most of the routine done by now, if she didn’t want to pull all-nighters. She was a perfectionist when it came to dancing though and even the pressure of a close deadline and an important grade couldn’t change that. She would manage somehow. Short nights are nothing new to her after all.

She got into the major of her dreams and she won’t waste that. Dancing had always been her passion and when she applied for multiple colleges to study dancing, she didn’t allow herself to have too much hope. But she actually got accepted and even had the possibility to choose between colleges. Everything had felt surreal at the time, but she quickly got used to being a college student. The pressure they put on everyone, wasn’t easy to handle at first, but she pushed trough. There was no turning back now. Not after everything she’d been through to get where she was now.

After catching her breath for a minute she started the music again. She picked a song that she personally liked a lot, so she wanted to work extra hard for it. Listening to the music over and over again, she tried out various dance moves that came naturally with the beat. Very slowly the choreo was coming together, but nowhere near fast enough. Bora looked at the time on her phone. It was past midnight already. Thankfully she was allowed to use the dance studio 24/7 and it was easier to work here, when no one else was around anyways. Suddenly, she heard a loud growling sound in the now silent studio. It was her stomach. She had forgotten to eat dinner. She scolded herself in her head. “Always remember to take care of yourself first”, she had promised her mom to not take things too far and at least remember to eat. With a mental apology to her mother, she rummaged through her bag to see, if she had any snacks left in there. With a squeal of triumph she pulled out a chocolate bar of her favourite brand. She was on a diet but since she wouldn’t eat anything more than that, she would be fine. Happily chewing, she sat on the floor. Only a few noises from outside could be heard. She closed her tired eyes for a few minutes. There wasn’t time to take a rest, she knew that, but it was also necessary for her to take a step back and order her thoughts before moving on. She felt how easy it would be to fall asleep in this moment. Just like this. On the floor. With the studio lights shining bright and unforgiving. It would just be for a few minutes, she told herself. Just to get a bit of energy back. Her head rested on the chair seat behind her. The noises from outside seemed to be quieter now. Without being aware of what was happening, Bora drifted off to the dreamland. And there she was faced with the similar scenario as she was every night. Something was different this time though. Usually she saw the old house from the inside. Running away from some kind of monster there. This time she saw the house from the outside for the first time. Or at least she thought it must have been the house of her dreams, since she had them for months now, every time she fell asleep. It was an old villa in European style. It didn’t look as old as it probably was though. The walls and windows were all clean and in good shape. A sense of hope sparked in Bora. If she was outside of the house, maybe she could finally get away from everything. She just had to turn around and run. Run away from that building. Run away from that monster. If she was outside now, the other girls that were usually with her in her dreams, probably made it outside too, right? They must have already gone ahead. Maybe they’re waiting for her on the other side. She was about to turn around, smiling in relieve and hope, as she suddenly realized that she couldn’t move. For some reason her legs were glued to the floor. Panic overcame her. This wasn’t hopeful after all. She saw small creatures crawling out of the windows, from under the roof and through various cracks the villa suddenly got. The more creatures crawled out (spiders, she realized), the more the house seemed to get older. And the spiders came towards her. They came to drag her back inside. They came to see her suffering. She screamed, tried to scare them away with her voice. But no sound left her throat. It was like she was being trapped in her own body. All she could do was watch as the thousands maybe millions of spiders got closer and closer. Their legs fast and eyes set on her. The thing inside the house probably watching her. Enjoying her despair. Bora didn’t even realize the tears running down her face, when the spiders were only seconds away from running her over and do what the shadow ordered them to.

“PLING!”

Bora jumped when her phone woke her up. Her face was wet with tears and cold sweat and she continued crying for a few more minutes until she pulled herself together again. She didn’t have time to slack off. She needed to get the dance done.

Yoobin couldn’t imagine herself a better life. She was very content with the world, as she sat in the middle of 5 Labrador puppies playing around and cuddling her. One of them, an especially playful one with beautiful golden fur, was in her lap at the moment trying to lick her face. She couldn’t stop smiling and laughing while playing with the puppies. It felt surreal that she actually earned money for having so much fun. Yes, the work on the farm was hard, but seeing how happy the animals were and caring for their wellbeing was definitely worth it. Dog breeding was just a side income for the farm. It didn’t really pay off, because the puppies needed a lot of care and vet costs should never be underestimated. Yoobin was happy that the farm owners kept the business going even though they focused more on cows and milk production.  She also loved the cows though. She originally started working here when she was still a teenager. Spending her holidays surrounded by cute animals while earning money seemed like a dream. Quickly she realized what the job really was like, but she still enjoyed every day of it. Yoobin had good grades, she could’ve gone to college, but she knew she would be happier here. The farmers, an elderly couple, who didn’t have children, were very thankful for her hard work and guaranteed that she could take over the farm, if she wanted to. Maybe later on she would study agricultural economics or something. But for now she wanted to focus on getting to know more about the farm and the business and all the different kinds of work that are involved with it. Stepping out of the cage, where the puppies stay with their mom stayed in, Yoobin went through her schedule for today. It would be another long and exhausting day, but she had a cheesecake waiting for her in the fridge for this afternoon, which made her motivated to finish everything as fast as possible. Usually she spent a lot of her time working alone. But she liked it that way. Yoobin had always preferred animals over humans anyways. She didn’t hate humans, but she was more comfortable alone. Animals were always honest to you. They never lied or talked about you behind your back. They gave you their love based on trust and respect and that’s how Yoobin would like to interact with humans too, but to find people who also thought like that was very difficult.  So she settled to stick with animals for now. Lately she asked herself, if her thoughts of humans were correct though. In her nightmares that plagued her every time she slept, there were always people helping her and not animals. She trusted the girls in her dreams and felt never lied to or betrayed by them. But that were just dreams after all. With a shiver she thought of last night. It felt like every time the nightmares were getting worse. Yoobin never talked about them. She was sure that she wasn’t going crazy or anything. Maybe others kept having nightmares too for a few months straight and it might even be normal. In the back of her head she knew that something was off. That there might be something she needed to fix, but she didn’t have the time to think about that. She didn’t want to think about the dreams more than she had to, so she always tried to push them away during the day. Sometimes the memories came back to her while she was working. And then the animals would feel her fear and worrying. They became more and more distant to her lately, because it’s been getting harder for her to just forget what she saw at night. It was very frustrating and she didn’t want to lose the trust that the cows and puppies had in her. That’s why she tried to work even harder to make herself too busy to remember anything. In her free time she even picked up her old hobby of writing poems and songs just to keep her mind busy. She tried to think about them while working. The nightmares have taken a big influence in the songs too though. They had a dark and mysterious vibe. Often hopeless scenarios and despair included. But some of the things she wrote, had a very tiny light flickering in the darkness. A spark of hope to escape the nightmare. These were the times, when she thought of the girls in her dreams while writing. Yoobin seemed to have understood that everything can turn out all right, if they were together. If they trusted each other and believed in everyone. Only then they might be able to save themselves...

 

Gahyeon was different than the other girls. She figured out that something about those dreams wasn’t normal. That there must be a meaning behind them. Since Gahyeon was a child she was able to control her dreams however she liked. She could build castles and ride on unicorns as a child. And she could achieve whatever she wanted in her teenage years. It was normal to her to have another life inside her dreams. But that changed a few months ago. Normally she could get out of a nightmare in seconds, but those nightmares were different. They didn’t let her be free inside her own head. They kept her trapped there and did whatever they wanted. She was highly concerned about the meaning of that. She had a few theories, but she couldn’t really make sense of anything. She saw six other girls together with her in her nightmares. She also couldn’t influence anything about them, even though they were on her side. So maybe that was because she wasn’t the only one having these dreams. It was only her theory, but maybe she could meet up with the others and find a solution together. Or more like: find out what the problem was in the first place. The feeling of being a victim to her own mind made her go crazy. She couldn’t think of anything that had happened that would make her lose her ability of influencing dreams, so all of that couldn’t just have been a coincidence. She tried to get her power over the nightmares back. She followed every internet tutorial she could find about dream manipulation, but absolutely nothing seemed to work. Last night, she thought she was making progress. She was determined to at least be outside for once. So that was everything she concentrated about when she went to sleep. Being outside of the house. And indeed she finally saw where everything had been taking place in her dreams. She didn’t recognize the villa but she was happy that she was able to influence something. In the end it turned out, that the nightmare had only been mocking her. She understood pretty fast, that she only saw the house to have a bit of hope that could be crushed immediately. In all her life she was never this frustrated and scared. There had to be a way out of this situation. If the nightmare was using her, then she couldn’t figure out what for. She made plans to focus on the other girls for now. If she could somehow contact them during a dream and tell them to meet somewhere, maybe they would come too. If her theory was right. And if the other people didn’t think that all of this was completely irrelevant. She only had to figure out how she could tell anyone anything, if she couldn’t really influence the nightmare. But maybe the villa could help her. There must be a lot of buildings in Europe which looked like this. So maybe finding out more about the place would help her.

Instead of doing her usual studying, Gahyeon spent now most of her time trying to look for the place, she had seen and if it actually existed. She knew that if she told anyone about what she was doing, they would think she has gone crazy, but to her there was no other solution. It was hard to look something up on the internet, so at some point she moved to the city archive to find out if any of these buildings were close to her hometown. And that was where she actually found a clue. Not a photograph or anything really helpful. But there was a ground plan of an old building that could maybe match the layout of the villa in her dreams. But she wasn’t very sure about that. Maybe most of these buildings had a similar layout. And she wasn’t able to find out more about the owner or the location of the house.

She let her head fall to the table in defeat. She wouldn’t give up though. She would try night after night to break out of that horrible spiral of nightmares. There had to be a way to defeat it. She just had to work harder to find the solution....


	2. Chase Me

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello I'm back. This chapter is rather short compared to the last one, but I think the following chapters won't be 5000 word monsters anymore. I just wanted to introduce all characters last time and get the backstory over with. Please enjoy and tell me what you think! Thanks to anyone who wants to keep reading this story. I hope all of you will have a wonderful week!!

Gahyeon continued to try everything she could think of to contact the other girls through their dreams. She didn’t succeed yet, but she was able to figure out more about the nightmares themselves. One time she looked into a mirror, while trying to find a place to hide and apparently Gahyeon looked like herself in the dreams. So she wasn’t experiencing everything in someone else’s body. Nice to know. The thing, which confused her though, were her clothes. She saw them in the mirror, but at the same time, she didn’t. When she tried to remember it, her vision went blurry and she just couldn’t seem to remember what they looked like. It was a dream after all. There were unfocused parts and details that she couldn’t catch well. Or maybe that was because of the constant fear and worry. Either way: some things about the whole nightmare issue she had didn’t make sense at all.

A few nights after their dream about the outside of the villa, there was a nightmare that should change everything for the seven girls.

Before nightfall Minji had a rather calm day at university and was looking forward to the weekend. She tried to get most of her work done, so that she could take some time off and relax for once. Minji actually debated if she should pull an all-nighter catching up on some shows she missed. After all, the night wasn’t refreshing for her. It wasn’t even 11p.m. though, when she realized that her body was too tired to stay awake. Not knowing what horrors await her this time, she went to sleep. After lying down and getting comfortable, she felt that it wouldn’t take long to fall asleep. And in this very moment she didn’t care about the nightmares one bit. She thought back to the past, when Yoohyeon was still by her side. How they played together in their rooms or ran around in the forest near the city. Minji fell asleep with a smile on her lips and wondered, if she would be able to see her former best friend again this night. To Minji’s surprise, she didn’t see even parts of the usual house, when the dream started. No... the picture inside her mind reminded her of something. She felt like she knew the place. It was an old road with a few houses on the side. The front yards looked clean well taken care of. It seemed like a rich, vintage neighbourhood. Suddenly Minji was pushed to the side and from the corner of her eyes she only saw the profile of two people, before she fell to the ground from the force of the push. Angrily she wanted to yell that they should be more careful. Minji raised her head to yell at them. They already ran further, but she could see that it must have been two girls. The slender figures were holding hands while running and both wore white dresses that didn’t seem like they were made for outside activities like this. Minji decided not to yell after all. Who knows why they were in a hurry. She kept looking as the distance grew bigger and bigger. Then the girls seemed to slow down. Minji got up from the ground again. All attention fixed on the white silhouettes. They stopped completely. And Minji’s heart started racing. What if they were the new form of the evil, which she usually had to face? She tried to get her breathing under control. Freaking out wouldn’t help her to see why they stopped running. Maybe they were just tired now. Minji squeezed her eyes, in the false belief that it would make her see the girls better. They turned their heads around. Both of them looking over the shoulder of the arm that held the hand of the other. Minji was prepared for some kind of cliché horror movie scene, but it didn’t happen. The girls were too far away for Minji to see their faces or expressions but Minji felt they were smiling. Not creepily but warm and friendly. Like Yoohyeon used to smile at her. A sudden mix of emotions waved over Minji. And before she even realized it, she was running. Running towards the girls, towards the happiness that they are promising her. Those two let Minji come a bit closer until they started running themselves again. And like that the three of them had a bizarre chase through the streets. After a while they left the city and Minji could see a seemingly endless forest. Made out of giant trees, which absorbed the moonlight and clouded the path in darkness. It reminded Minji of her childhood once again and she didn’t even think twice before accelerating a bit and running straight into the darkness, still chasing the other two.

It was indeed a path. Very narrow and hard to see, but it helped that Minji just had to copy what the girls were doing. And even though it was a dark forest, she didn’t feel scared of it. It felt normal to be there. If Minji had been in full control of her mind, she would have realized that something must be wrong. But it was a dream. And Minji finally had some fun. So there was no way she would start overthinking the situation. The forest got a bit brighter as the girls run straight to what seemed like a clearing. The Moonlight seemed brighter here than it had been in the town. Minji exited the forest shortly after the other two and stepped on the clearing. To her horror she didn’t see a inviting meadow or anything like that. No. Right there in the middle of the clearing was that. That house. The villa she saw a few nights prior. Her heart was still racing from the long run, but it got even faster as Minji couldn’t control her panic. She felt how her sweat was like ice on her skin. Covering her in its unforgiving cold grip. The girls were nowhere to be seen anymore. Only an empty house on a silent clearing during a peaceful night. But to Minji it meant so much more than that. The realization hit her so hard that she woke herself up with the pure shock of it. Shivering and crying she sat on her bed in the middle of the night. How could she have been so blind? It was so obvious, so close. She grabbed the roots of her hair, pulled on it out of pure despair.

Yoohyeon’s house. The dream had started in front of Yoohyeon’s house.

Minji didn’t catch one wink of sleep anymore after that. She knew she was overreacting. Probably. There was just no way that the dream told her the truth. Dreams are made from experiences you had in the past. She knew Yoohyeon’s house, so that’s why her brain showed it to her. That was it. Yet, deep down, Minji had a feeling. A very terrifying feeling. That the villa wasn’t just a construct of her own mind. That it was actually way closer than she could have ever imagined. And that it wasn’t empty at all.

That night not only Minji, but six other girls also spent the night in fear. Holding tightly onto the last bit of hope they had. But actually they all started to realize. They couldn’t keep ignoring it anymore. Something wasn’t right. And if they wanted to find out more, they would have to follow where the nightmare was leading them. A lot of tears fell that night. But one girl had a different reason than the others. One girl was thankful to be a step closer. To feel like her hard work somehow would pay off.

Gahyeon had hope. She will escape the nightmare.


	3. Emotion

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm finally back oof. Please bear with me. Finally the story will progress a bit hehe. Hope you enjoy!

The sun shined brightly the next morning, so it was actually already warm in the late morning. Handong was cold though. So cold that her hands were slightly trembling. She was walking through the streets of the city that she grew to know so well. With every step she took, she resented that fact more and more. It seemed like her body knew where she wanted to go. Why?! It was a stupid dream. Why did she even remember the way she ran along last night in her dreams? She probably walked here when she was a child. And even if there was actually a house in the forest, she was headed to, that wouldn’t mean, it was anything bad. Right? Handong tried to calm herself with everything she had. She should spend her free day studying and not walking to a stupid forest in the middle of nowhere. But maybe a little walk would clear her mind a bit and calm her down? She clenched her still trembling hands a bit tighter, scolding herself for never staying true to her decisions. Last night she was so motivated to try to find that place, but she wasn’t even out of town and already had second thoughts. Her inner rant to herself about having more confidence and trust in herself managed to distract her a bit from the worry that’s been nagging her mind. Her steps were fast. Way faster than a simple walk would be. Unconsciously she walked as fast as she could, without starting to jog. There was another reason for her to go out and head to the location in her dreams as soon as the morning came. She had hope to meet the girls in her dreams there. After she woke up from the nightmare, she thought of a thousand different scenarios and mostly it was about what she would do, when she saw them. What if they weren’t just an imagination projected by her loneliness? If they existed and waited for her? The thought of maybe seeing them with her own eyes filled her with excitement, despite everything. It would change a lot and she also kind of could imagine the gravity of the situation, if her dreams were indeed true to some extent. But during those horrible nightmares they meant hope. She felt safe with them. And the idea of having a group of close friends that she could trust and depend on no matter what, filled her with a warm, homely feeling. Although she felt dumb, she picked some nice clothes to wear and tried to get her ponytail to look good. Among the imaginative scenarios she had had, there were quite a number of ones with her messing up at some point. She desperately wanted to make a good first impression.... of course only if Handong’s suspicion would turn out true and she wasn’t being too optimistic about this. Going through some of the situations again and actually trying to practise her introduction, she didn’t realize how far she walked already. If Handong looked up, she would already see the trees. But her eyes stayed fixed on the floor as her mind was running even faster than her steps. Only as the path she was walking on started to get really thin and roots cracked through the ground from here and there, she looked up to see herself being surrounded by a bright green forest. It was spring, so the leaves all still looked light and fresh. The sun sneaking past them made everything look pretty and peaceful. Handong gulped hard. She was so far already. Theoretically it was only a few kilometres to her apartment. Somehow the forest seemed to have a big meaning though. That it was more than just space that would separate her from home, if she continued. It felt like a border in some kind of way. Without really knowing why, she whispered a quiet “goodbye” as she looked back to the city.

If Minji was actually surprised then she didn’t even realize it herself. Her expression stayed blank for about 15 minutes straight while she was staring at onto the clearing. She got ready to leave after her sobbing kind of died down. And as soon as she left her apartment, she had control over herself again. There was barely any daylight that early in the morning, but she couldn’t manage to wait any longer. She had to check, what was there. Hidden behind the forest.

There had been no doubt. The path and the location of the clearing were just like in her dream. She could remember every single detail about it this time, unlike other nightmares, which got a bit blurry sometimes and were hard to recall after waking up. As she stepped out between the trees she avoided looking up for a few seconds, but curiosity waved over her. She had come too far now, so what did avoiding it help? She recognized the building in front of her within less than a second. Yup, that was exactly the villa from her dreams... Unlike her dreams she surprisingly didn’t feel uneasy though. She felt as if she finally arrived home after a long vacation. Somehow missing the freedom of the vacation already, but thankful to be at the familiar home again. After Minji was done staring, she decided to go a little closer. The big gate that surrounded the villa seemed closed. It had slim black metal bars and an emblem that was mirrored where the two doors were closed against each other. Somehow Minji knew that the emblem was once gold. No idea how she could had possibly known that, she decided to try to go inside yet. The gate was closed but it didn’t seem locked. It didn’t feel right yet, though. She didn’t have the slightest idea what was happening, but she decided to trust her instincts for now. Her subconsciousness seemed to be smarter and more experienced than her awake mind in that situation. So Minji sat down in the tall grass in front of the gate and waited. There was no way she could just go back like that. Something would happen, she just knew it.

It turned out that she didn’t even have to wait long, before that turned out to be true. Only one and a half hour later Minji heard footsteps hurrying through towards her. The grass blocked her view, so Minji sprang to her feet as soon as she realized who it might be. “AAHGH”, a loud, surprised scream ripped through the peaceful clearing. Minji jumped a bit at the sudden noise. “AAAh DON’T SCARE ME LIKE THAT”, the obviously startled person said, still screaming. “I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you or anything”, Minji replied apologetically. She took a few moments to look at the girl in front of her. The first thing she realized was that she was quite short. But her voice makes up for that wow, Minji thought with a slight ringing in her ears. When she looked properly in her face, Minji’s eyes went wide. The other girl also seemed to have recognized her now. They had been seeing each other almost every night, yet now that there were facing each other it felt so surreal. Silence took over both of them, neither knowing how to take the situation. Chewing on her bottom lip, Minji thought carefully about what she could possibly say next. It wasn’t like she never expected this to happen. But in that very moment she felt unprepared and overwhelmed by everything. There was something bigger to the whole thing than just nightmares. Minji felt panic scratching at her nerves. As she tried her best to silently calm herself, the other girl stretched her hand out and said: “Nice to meet you, I’m Bora”. Her voice was lower now and Minji almost didn’t hear her, because she was so lost in her thoughts. Still a bit perplexed she grabbed her and though and answered: “Nice to meet you too. I’m Minji.” Bora stepped a bit closer to her and she had to crook her neck quite far to look up to the other girl. Minji couldn’t help but find it cute how small she was. “Woah you’re really pretty. Are you an actress or model by chance?” Again perplexed, Minji stuttered: “What? Oh thank you, but no I’m not. I’m a normal student. You’re really cute yourself.” She managed to finish the last sentence with a smile. Bora let out a kind of inhuman shriek while stepping back a bit and jumping up and down. Minji couldn’t help but laugh at the sight. Bora seemed to be full of energy. It was really adorable. After she calmed down a bit, they both sat down in the grass. The awkwardness between them still there, but not nearly as bad as before. “Do you think the others will come too?” Minji turned her head to look Bora. Her face was serious now and her eyes seemed a bit unfocused. She thought for a few seconds before she answered: “They probably will. We’re here too right?” Bora nodded. “Indeed we are...” Then she fell silent again. Minji kept running her fingers through her hair. A nervous habit that she had since her childhood. It was somewhat comforting that she didn’t have to wait alone anymore, but still. Everything felt surreal and yet not weird enough. Why did neither of them turn on their heels and ran away as soon as they saw the villa? Why would they wait for the others and what would happen after everyone showed up?

After only a few minutes of silence, Minji heard someone getting closer again. She stood up more slowly this time to not scare the other person. She found herself looking into beautiful doe eyes. This time Minji wanted to make the first introduction a bit smoother, so she smiled as she said: “Hey. I’m Minji. Nice to meet you” The girl quietly answered that her name was Handong and Minji immediately realised how shy and nervous she was. Completely different from Bora. They sat and waited mostly in silence. Everyone thinking that they should wait for the others, before discussing anything. Soon after that a young girl named Gahyeon came, who seemed the least unbothered out of all of them so far. Siyeon made another loud first impression as she literally fell over Gahyeon before anyone even realized that she was coming and then kept screaming about how sorry she was, while Bora was neighing with laughter rolling in the grass. Yoobin was a whole angel. Apparently she wanted to be prepared, in case anyone was living at the house or anything, so she brought some freshly made apple pie that she was now offering to everyone.

Minji was so busy with everything that was going on so she forgot about one particular person who also appeared in her nightmares usually. The sun was already high up as a slender, tall figure approached the six girls in the grass. “Hi everyone”, the clear voice made all of them look up. Five of them started greeting the last member of them and introduced themselves. Minji though, was frozen on spot. She stared at Yoohyeon in utter shock. Now she was truly panicking. No idea, what she could possibly say or how she could explain avoiding her for so long, she just sat there not being able to form even a simple “hello”. When Yoohyeon was finished with the others she finally faced Minji. She knelt down in front of her with the brightest most beautiful smile, Minji had ever seen. “I can’t believe that we finally meet again! I’m so happy. Minji, I missed you so much.” And with that she tackled the still frozen Minji in a tight bear hug. “Wait, you two know each other”, Yoobin asked a bit confused. Because her childhood friend still didn’t seem to have found her voice again, Yoohyeon answered: “Yes, we know each other since we were little. We lost contact a while ago though.” Facing Minji again, she threw one question after another at her. “How have you been?” “What are you doing right now?” “I hope you’ve been eating well. Have you eaten today?” “God, you’re skin is so pretty. Can you tell me what products you use, please?” Finally Minji woke up from her frozen state. She started off smiling but soon it turned into a bright and loud laughing. Right in front of her was her best friend. She didn’t have to worry about anything. Yoohyeon grew older and prettier, but she was still the loyal puppy at heart, that Minji loved. For a few moments she forgot everything else. The tiredness, the house, the nightmares. Nothing mattered at this point. Only Yoohyeon’s smile directed at her and the beautiful sound of her voice calling her name again after so many years. She realized how much she had missed these emotions.


End file.
